Summer (2009!!!!!!) picnic at Hyde Park

[chillzero]

I'll be 'dahn sath' for a few weeks this month, and on 16th July will be meeting a few people for a picnic in Hyde Park and possibly a visit to the Natural History Museum that afternoon.

There may be plans for the evening as well (probably booze related) ... not sure yet.

Anyone interested is welcome to join us.

[Croydon Bob]

There may be plans for the evening as well (probably booze related) ... not sure yet.

Evening drink central(ish) London sounds plausible for a number of us.

[dalriada]

Evening drink central(ish) London sounds plausible for a number of us.

Oooh I'm giving a talk at the SPR in Kensington library that very evening y'all should come along and heckle drunkenly...

;)

[bindeweede]

Oooh I'm giving a talk at the SPR in Kensington library that very evening y'all should come along and heckle drunkenly...

;)

I'm sure the good Dr. would be too modest.


Jul 16 2009 6:35PM - 9:00PM FOOTFALL ON THE HAUNTED STAIRWAY: W. B. YEATS’ ADVENTURES IN PSYCHICAL RESEARCH

William Butler Yeats is one of the Society for Psychical Research’s most illustrious former members and although his parapsychological interests are less well known than his poetry, he nevertheless believed that psychical research was one of the few revolutionary movements to possess enough novelty and sensation “to stir men to action”. Yeats saw plenty of action. As a young man, he and a group of like-minded friends formed the Dublin Hermetic Society and earnestly performed card-guessing experiments in telepathy. An important collector of Irish folklore he publically clashed in SPR debate with Frank Podmore over the evidential value of ethnographical research and once disconcerted Theodore Roosevelt with his assertion that "We must consider the little people" - meaning the fairies, a race of beings whom American Presidents are not usually required to reflect upon. Later in life he developed his theory of the “Anima Mundi" a concept of the transcendent and universal mind which has parallels with C. G. Jung’s Collective Unconscious. As an elderly statesman he still found time to give some thought to quantum physics and the metaphysical properties of cats. This talk will discuss W. B. Yeats’ psychical research activities across the course of his lifetime, including his significant contributions and a few of his more embarrassing moments.

http://www.spr.ac.uk/expcms/index.php?action=view&id=41&date_id=41&module=calendarmodule&src=%40random4198072c7e088

[Gaspode]

Won't be able to get there during the day sadly but the evening should be no problem. Especially if there's alcohol.

[Pebble]

Won't be able to get there during the day sadly but the evening should be no problem. Especially if there's alcohol.

Why does gaspode make me think on a one legged person with flatulence?

[Croydon Bob]

Why does gaspode make me think on a one legged person with flatulence?

I've no idea because it makes me think of a little dog and the phrase "millenium hand and shrimp!"

[chillzero]

OK - evening meetup.
Who knows a good bar that's near to or easy to get to from the Hyde Park area?

[Croydon Bob]

Who knows a good bar that's near to or easy to get to from the Hyde Park area?

Dunno. But if Dalriada is at Kensington Central Library, W8 7RX, that evening then she's very close to Hyde Park. So getting the two of you, and some of the rest of us, together should be easy...

The 10 min walk from Hyde Park across Kensington Gardens towards the library can, with a bit of zig-zagging, become a 20 min walk past the Diana Memorial, statue of Peter Pan and massive Prince Albert Memorial.

If anyone knows pubs in the Kensington area then please speak up, otherwise I'll try to find something. I was actually born in Kensington but moved to Croydon before my first birthday so I think that I can be forgiven for lacking pub knowledge.

[chillzero]

Thank you Bob!

[Trinoc]

Is anyone planning to go to Dalriada's SPR talk?

[dalriada]

Is anyone planning to go to Dalriada's SPR talk?



Feel perfecty free to go pubbing instead...

(I shall be doing the same in spirit....) ;)

[chillzero]

I'm totally open to going, if others are. Or hopefully Dalriada can join us after?
(I am making an assumption I'll be able to find my way back to Tim and Lynn's late at night ... on public transport .... tipsy ... eh .... hmmm ???)

[Gaspode]

I'm totally open to going, if others are. Or hopefully Dalriada can join us after?
(I am making an assumption I'll be able to find my way back to Tim and Lynn's late at night ... on public transport .... tipsy ... eh .... hmmm ???)

I'd help you out but even after years of navigating the Tube I still regularly end up going on the wrong branch and/or in the wrong direction. And that's when I'm sober.

[chillzero]

Current info:
I had a look at a map of Hyde Park , and it's much bigger than I realised. However, bearing in mind that it may not be dry, I wondered if a good place to meet up would be near the Dell Restaurant. If it's dry, we could sit around the Little Nell Statue, and if it's wet, we could be in the restaurant.

So, that would be around lunchtime (any time from 11am to 2-ish, say?), and if you are planning to come to the park then or later in the afternoon, PM me and I'll give you my mobile number.

I think then it will be a trip to the Natural History Museum for the late afternoon.

Somewhere for dinner in the general vicinity, and a walk (through the park again I think?) to the Kensington area to find a bar - suggestions welcome.

Depending on when people want to meet up in the evening, there might be a visit to the Kensington Library to heckle Dalriada. If 9's too late for people to start meeting/drinking, then we'll be in a bar nearby hoping Dalriada can join us after.
Again, I'll give out my number to anyone wanting to meet up.

[chillzero]

Who's coming to the park, so I know how much food and wine to bring?

And ... anyone thought of a good pub for the evening yet?

[Croydon Bob]

I can't make the picnic. I can turn up around 6.30ish.

The Prince of Wales pub (http://www.beerintheevening.com/pubs/s/87/877/Prince_of_Wales/Kensington) is the only one in the area that I can recall having been in before. It is just off Kensington High Street near where Dalriada is doing her talk. On this map: http://www.streetmap.co.uk/oldmap.srf?x=525661&y=179739&z=0&sv=W8+4EP&st=2&pc=W8+4EP&mapp=oldmap.srf&searchp=oldsearch.srf
The Library is across the road from the Tube Station and the pub is up and around the corner about 200 meters away.

I was hoping to have time today to go visit the area but I'm not going to be able to. So, if someone else has a better plan, speak now. Otherwise lets meet up there.

At/from what time?

[chillzero]

Thank you for the suggestion. I'll PM my number to anyone who's thinking of joining us at any point, in case we aren't where we expect to be.

6-30ish sounds ok to me - gives us time to have had an early dinner, and walk over.

[Mulder]

Every time I look at this thread I see "Summer (2009!) picnic at ..." and I think it's going to say " ... Hanging Rock". That would be a bit more exciting than Hyde Park.

[chillzero]

Every time I look at this thread I see "Summer (2009!) picnic at ..." and I think it's going to say " ... Hanging Rock". That would be a bit more exciting than Hyde Park.

...perhaps you underestimate us!!! :cheesy:

[bindeweede]

...perhaps you underestimate us!!! :cheesy:

I am only 30 mins from London by train, but I've never explored Hyde Park. I am looking forward to the picnic, and to doing some exploring. The Serpentine Gallery is one thing that is appealing, atm.

[dalriada]

Have Pmed my mobile number ---i'll be in London all day, Kensington area though from early evening i'll be waxing lyrical in the library about Yeats, drugs and fairies...




(although I haven't actually done all the preparation for that yet....bad me :-[)

[Croydon Bob]

Have Pmed my mobile number ---i'll be in London all day, Kensington area though from early evening i'll be waxing lyrical in the library about Yeats, drugs and fairies...

6.35pm to 9pm? Kensington Central Library? Just off Kensington High Street, across the road from the Tube Station?

[Trinoc]

The Prince of Wales pub (http://www.beerintheevening.com/pubs/s/87/877/Prince_of_Wales/Kensington) is the only one in the area that I can recall having been in before.
I hope it's improved a bit since the reviews on that page ...

[lost thought]

Have Pmed my mobile number ---i'll be in London all day, Kensington area though from early evening i'll be waxing lyrical in the library about Yeats, drugs and fairies...




(although I haven't actually done all the preparation for that yet....bad me :-[)

Any chance of posting a recording for us fortunate enough not to live in London, Please, Pleeaasse, pretty pleeeeeeeeesssseeee.;DO0

[Croydon Bob]

Well it has all happened. I've met dalriada (what a babe! looks nothing like her avatar). Chillzero showed me her chest.

I had a great evening.

There were some other skeptics turned up too.

[Trinoc]

Well it has all happened. I've met dalriada (what a babe! looks nothing like her avatar). Chillzero showed me her chest.

I had a great evening.

There were some other skeptics turned up too.
Nice to know I'm an "also-drank" :smiley:

Pity Dalriada couldn't join us in the pub, but we were trumped by an offer to buy her a meal from the SPR crowd.

Interesting talk about Yeats and his woo activities. I'd still like to know why, given that he believed fairies were aboriginal Celtic inhabitants from before the invasion of "civilization", that he thought the phrases to invoke them would be in Latin ...

[Mulder]

Why latin - some ideas here (http://elentelsalnen.dragonseye.net/board/index.php?showtopic=18)...

[Trinoc]

Why latin - some ideas here (http://elentelsalnen.dragonseye.net/board/index.php?showtopic=18)...
Well, yes, it makes good mumbo-jumbo. But to my mind, ancient Irish Gaelic would be even better. I'm more impressed by the idea of Celtic magicians like (say) Merlin than I am by educated Roman ones.

In this case, though, Yeats apparently did not think it was mumbo-jumbo, and I find it hard to believe that someone of his intelligence would not see the apparent contradiction in using Latin. So, assuming he had a good reason for this, I wonder what it could be.

[dalriada]

Nice to know I'm an "also-drank" :smiley:

Pity Dalriada couldn't join us in the pub, but we were trumped by an offer to buy her a meal from the SPR crowd.

Interesting talk about Yeats and his woo activities. I'd still like to know why, given that he believed fairies were aboriginal Celtic inhabitants from before the invasion of "civilization", that he thought the phrases to invoke them would be in Latin ...

Very, very sorry to have missed the drinks (I managed to mislay another friend en route too) however Trinoc was a hero for listening to my fairy talk!

I'd tend to think if Yeats had been able to speak Irish himself (he couldn't, although he did try his hand sometimes at making some up) then his views on the appropriate address for fairies may have been different.. ;) The "Regina, Regina Pigmeorum, Veni" invocation was something that he'd read about that had worked for William Lilly the astrologer so why not him? This of course begs the question why Lilly's fairies at Windsor should speak Latin (unless they were perhaps remanants of the Roman invasion??)

They key point for me tho' in that story (http://www.sacred-texts.com/neu/yeats/twi/twi15.htm) (of which there are a couple of versions) was that Yeats had skill as a hypnotist and the participants (who are his uncle and a younger female cousin)are in some kind of altered state of consciousness.

[Trinoc]

Trinoc was a hero for listening to my fairy talk!
You're too modest! :smiley:

I have to admit I couldn't concentrate on the first bit too well because of that guy prancing around trying to get the sound system working. All he really needed to do was shift your main microphone so it didn't feed back, but instead I ended up for the rest of the talk with your voice directly into my left ear from the radio mic speaker!

[chillzero]

Had a great day - thank you everyone who came along.
8)

[lost thought]

Any chance of posting a recording for us fortunate enough not to live in London, Please, Pleeaasse, pretty pleeeeeeeeesssseeee.;DO0

I realise dalriada has a very hectic schedule and was unable to take the time to make a post to say NO.
Some people would construe this as being rude but I realise that someone in an elite strata can not take the time to waste on lesser mortals whom may be trying to improve themselves and should not sully you by expecting the simple courtesy of an answer, so I do humbly apologise for wasting your valuable time with my worthless request which I would not have probably understood being vastly inferior to yourself.

[Trinoc]

I realise dalriada has a very hectic schedule and was unable to take the time to make a post to say NO.
Some people would construe this as being rude but I realise that someone in an elite strata can not take the time to waste on lesser mortals whom may be trying to improve themselves and should not sully you by expecting the simple courtesy of an answer, so I do humbly apologise for wasting your valuable time with my worthless request which I would not have probably understood being vastly inferior to yourself.
This was very much an informal talk (and rather poorly attended, though I don't know how many people the SPR normally expects), and as far as I know it was not recorded. If it had been, then I think they would have paid a bit more attention to the sound system rather than frantically trying to get it working after the talk had started. I may be wrong, of course.

[Trinoc]

I just noticed the motto from the SPR web site ...


"I shall not commit the fashionable stupidity of regarding everything I cannot explain as a fraud." - C.G.Jung
To which I would add ...


"I shall not commit the fashionable stupidity of regarding everything I cannot explain as a paranormal."

[dalriada]

I realise dalriada has a very hectic schedule and was unable to take the time to make a post to say NO.
Some people would construe this as being rude but I realise that someone in an elite strata can not take the time to waste on lesser mortals whom may be trying to improve themselves and should not sully you by expecting the simple courtesy of an answer, so I do humbly apologise for wasting your valuable time with my worthless request which I would not have probably understood being vastly inferior to yourself.

Ewwww get you!!

Completely missed your post I'm afraid as due to my (in truth) very busy schedule, I don't spend all day monging on t'interweb and just pop in now and again to certain threads. The Yeats presentation was Informal non-academic talk about a personal interest, and it never occurred to me to actually record for posterity. I Must work on that very massive ego-development and remember that as a member of the elite strata I must be hyper alert to the potential for immediately servicing random requests from vastly inferior beings such as yourself...


I must keep the little people happy...

:cheesy: :cheesy: :cheesy:

[Trinoc]

I must keep the little people happy...

:cheesy: :cheesy: :cheesy:
That's what my grandma said ... always look after your elf ... :smiley: